A Mindfulness Response: Grounding Skills

Grounding Skills

            There are many types of grounding skills. Grounding skills use mental activities, physical body awareness, and soothing sensations. and the physical senses. Using the five senses is helpful. Three other senses that can be added to the list are proprioception, vestibular, and interoception.         

Physical Body Awareness

Take five long, deep breaths through your nose and exhale through your lips.

Move your toes and ankles, then different joints up to your head.

Calisthenics: Push your hands into each other, pause, and do it again.

Run cool water over your hands or splash cool water on your face.

Rub the palms of your hands together and notice the friction and the heat.

Stretches: Reach hands above your head and hold them for 5 seconds, then put them down and repeat.

Clench your fists, then release the tension. Repeat ten times.

Carry a grounding object in your pocket to touch.

Wear a locket with a picture of a loved one, a pendant, a crystal, or a small photo.

Walk slowly and take deep breaths while you notice your feet touching the ground.

Focus on your breath.

Eat a food item slowly and describe the five senses to yourself as you eat it mindfully.

Hold an ice cube.

Mental Exercises:

Name all the blue objects in the room.

Count backward from one hundred by fours.

Read a book or newspaper article slowly, aloud to yourself.

Spell your name backward.

Name different types of animals that begin with the letter T.

Describe in detail how to make a sandwich.

Write down funny things from the past and keep a humor journal.

Name five things associated with categories such as movies, books, colors, sports teams, countries, songs, animals, vegetables, trees, or birds.

Write in a journal.

Put a puzzle together.

Do a reality check with a trusted person.

Imagine the pain and suffering floating downstream from you as a leaf would.

Use affirmations:  I am strong. I can do this.

Observe:

Watch the clouds blow across the sky. Imagine your pain blowing away with the clouds.

Watch the rain fall and flow down the street. Imagine your negative thoughts flowing down the street with the water.

Safety:

Remind yourself that you are here and describe the room in detail. Say, "My name is … I am sitting on a chair in the …

I am here on this day … and the date is…

I am with …

My name is…

I live at …

I am safe now.

Describe and imagine a safe place. Write down details about it. Describe it to a support person.

Self-Soothing and Five Senses Plus Three Other Senses

            What activities make you feel calmer and more relaxed? Please make a note of them and practice them daily and each week. Build them into your routine, like taking a prescribed medication; they are also important. Occupational therapists have studied sensory integration to help people learn how to calm themselves (Andelin, Reynolds, & Schoen 2021).

            Try to notice what helps move your mind from anxiety and stress to a calmer place using the five senses: an interesting or calm taste, touch, smell, sight, or sound. Consider Aromatherapy, cooking, pictures of favorite places or people, sound machines, or pets.

Using the Five Senses

5-4-3-2-1

5          Pleasant sites that I see.

4          Calm things I can hear or have heard.

3          Pleasant aromas, odors or things that I smelled.

2          Tastes that I enjoyed.

1          Comforting touch.

            This type of grounding skill helps focus on the five senses. It gets the mind to a different place where thinking about pleasant or comforting things can be enjoyable. This helps the focus of the mind change from a strong emotion, such as depression or anxiety, to a more pleasant focus. It helps to get the mind away from ruminating on strong emotions and feelings. It helps us feel more control over strong emotions and feelings that can create long-lasting moods.

            When stressed, try chewing spearmint or peppermint gum or sucking on a sweet tart candy. Strong tastes can move our negative emotions and thoughts to a different area for a short period. Aromatherapy can help people calm down with lavender. Try to find what works for you. Low lighting and scenes with oceans and lakes may be more calming to people. Sound machines with ocean waves or noises that sound like fans, rain, or other rhythmic sounds may be calming to people.

Use of Three Other Senses

Vestibular:

            This has to do with balance. Yoga or Tai Chi poses that involve standing on one leg. Walking, running, and jogging include balance and the vestibular sense. This sense uses gravity and movement to maintain balance in the body.

            Dancing, spinning, balancing, driving, rocking chairs, bouncing on a trampoline

Walking on tiptoes, going up and down stairs, crawling, kneeling, roller coasters

Interoception:

            Your body feels things inside. This comes with observation and noticing different sensations. Everyone experiences hunger, nausea, dizziness, needing to use the bathroom, or the sensation of having a full bladder. These sensations are inside our bodies. Try to notice and observe what you feel inside your body, such as thirst, feeling hot or cold, pain, tickles, numbing, and tingling.

Proprioception: 

            Your body will move its intense focus off of a strong emotion if you try to soothe yourself with weighted blankets, placing a heavy object in your lap, or doing push-ups against the wall. Proprioception is knowing where your body is in space. Examples include pushing, pulling, lifting heavy weights, weighted blankets, massage, and stretches.

Soothing Sensations

Repeat self-kindness statements:

I am a wonderful person.

I deserve love and friendship.

I am bigger than my troubles.

I can do this.

Imagine calm scenes in your mind. Do a collage about your calm scene.

Think of favorites: colors, animals, seasons, food, music, TV shows, and movies.

Sing or hum an inspirational song.

Look at photos of loved ones.

Take a warm bath, a hot shower, a cool shower, or a cold shower.

Listen to quiet music.

Use a weighted blanket, a shoulder wrap, a collar wrap, or a lap pad.

Use fidgets, clay, or puzzle toys.

Use low lighting or lava lamps.

Sit in a quiet room. Use a sound machine or phone app with different sounds to calm the environment.

Sit in a bean bag chair, a rocking chair, or a glider chair.